Douglas Strachan, 75, of Rio Verde passed away peacefully on July 15, 2021, with family at his side. Doug was born on Nov. 24, 1945, to Alvin (Pinky) and Joyce Strachan. He grew up on the family farm in Castle Rock, Minn. He graduated from Northfield High School in 1963. He played football, basketball and baseball and summer baseball in the D.R.S. league. He attended Mankato State College for one year.
Doug married Phyllis Fredrickson in 1964 and they had two sons, Steve (Sue) and Jim (Maren). Doug and Phyllis were married for 18 years. In 1984 Doug married Pat Rice.
He started his career at General Mills, who sent him to Control Data Institute. That led to a successful career in information technology that spanned four decades. He worked with several companies including EMR Computing, Cytrol Inc., Shearson Lehman Hutton, US Bank and Dain Rauscher/RBC before retiring in 2002.
BILLY STRACHAN was born 100 years ago today, on April 16 1921 in Jamaica, then a British colony.
Aged just 18, he paid his own way to Britain in 1940 to join the Royal Air Force to take part in the war effort against Nazi Germany.
He rose through the ranks to become flight lieutenant, a remarkable achievement for a black person at that time.
Billy Strachan and his wife Joyce
He married Joyce Smith and by 1946, the young couple and their three sons migrated to Jamaica to start a new life.
The colonial racism he encountered prevented Strachan gaining promotion in his old job in the Civil Service and this, combined with an understanding of class, led him to befriend the Jamaican lawyer, trade unionist and activist Richard Hart and British communist David Lewis.